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Podcast Studies

‘Just because you play a guitar and are from Nashville doesn’t mean you are a country singer’ The case for Podcast Studies.

In 2017 the term “podcasting” became a teenager. Like any teenager it is now increasingly rebelling against its parents, experimenting with new practices, and behaving in a way that the older media might find in-appropriate. Podcasting has evolved from a space where remediated radio programmes dominated, into a ‘Second Age of Podcasting’ of podcasting (Bonini, 2015). An age where the podcast space has become professionalised, commercialised, and increasingly self-aware. This paper frames a conversation on the place of podcasts in the media environment, through theoretical framing and a small online survey of podcasters.

By reflecting on podcastness we can perhaps reach new understandings and concepts of what podcasting and the key relationship between radio and podcasting. The paper will argue that whilst radio exists in the podcast space, there is an increasing sense that podcasters are defining their own practices and their own identities as producers of work that is wholly independent of radio. It is this sense of difference, that I suggest means there are good grounds to argue for use of podcast studies as a new frame of reference.

By reflecting on podcastness we can perhaps reach new understandings and concepts of what podcasting is, whilst at the same time recognises the inherent differences between the medium of radio and the business of radio. It is time to explore that key relationship between radio and podcasting and wonder in doing so do we risk losing sight of what each form does best, and who wins we when call podcasts radio?

Talk about the book as an indicator of PODCAST STUDIESThe tools used to frame the chapter

1 MIN

This is the core part of the theme

Technology played a part, but perhaps part of the reason podcasts have gained appeal is that producers have found their voice and their MEDIUM/CULTURAL IDENTITY

There are lots of arguments that say podcasts are just another form of radio

But are they? Or is ‘radio’ being used either as CULTURAL SHORT-HAND or in a way that misses the point?

Maybe it’s an attempt to validate a continuity of radio? Or evidence of a digital future?

1 MIN

A question about who wins when we call it “radio”? Does that exclude certain forms that don’t fit accepted frames? And would everyone accept the radio ‘tag’ on their work?

DAVID BLACK - calling an internet practice “radio” puts a lid on some of the options as to where it can go and what it can become’

Both of these models – one commercial and one academic offer insights into podcast histories

Podcasting has been through a peak.

Technologies have improved (morris and patterson) but also podcasters have worked out their role

This is about attention The tracking of technologies In 2004/5/6 journalists were writing about how the innovationIn 2006/7/8 they were writing about the demise (or not at all) In 2014/5/6/7 they were writing about the golden age and how amazing podcasts are

This is because we crossed into the zone of the EARLY MAJORITY!

3 MINS

To some extent this is where we have come from, viewing podcasting as a platform subjugated by radio as a delivery system

Article talks about CBC radio and 2 modes of operation. One where podcasting was a platform to serve up content already transmitted CBC Radio 3 – offered route for new content (popular outside Canada) On the use in Australia

“ Podcasting facilitates repeat listening far better than the domestic audio taping of the past, and compliments the ABC’s existing facilities for extending the shelf-life of its high quality content” (Simone Murray, 2009)

This suggests an un-nuanced view of what podcasting is. An extension, rather than something new

A simple way to deliver a remediated form of radio through a system that initially did not require the construction or development of new infrastructure

ASYNCHRONOUS listening Lowers the age of the listener Adds GLOBAL AUDIENCES

Both Jo Tacchi and Kate Lacey have argued that online forms of radio, and in Lacey’s case podcasts are just another form of radio.

Radio has adapted through the ages and this is part of that.

Enrico Menduni suggested that it is, in fact, an interim technology. A bridge to a mobile future. We are already seeing innovation through mobile apps in tools like BBC iPlayer and NPR One.

Maybe it’s just an updating? Or that radio will have another format, genre, type? (Like community radio) Maybe it’s a return to the past (with emphasis on talk, rather than music) But maybe it is something new?

3 mins

Just as practice had developed over time, so has the way that academic work looks at podcasting

Work on the future of radio suggests that podcasts are the latest iteration of radio.

Convergence culture tells us that media content can be divorced from the technologies that originally created them. Meilkle and Young suggest that the inventors first action are simply part of a process of negotiation. Media evolve

This means that radio subjugates the podcast platform as another means of delivery and that podcasts are just another form of radio

That’s a bit simplistic. YouTube isn’t TV, so why should podcasts be radio?

It suggests that a broad range of content from university lectures and prosumer content is ontologically, culturally, and acoustically the same as the Chris Evans Breakfast Show… or at least is an iteration of the same experience.

5 MINS

Earlier I mentioned CBC

The BBC were one of the first world broadcasters to adopt podcasting.

What we can see when we look at their activity is a maturing of the approach

In the early phase podcasting was a platform for programmes like IN OUR TIME and others

But over time the approach has developed.

Programmes are remediated (usually taking the music out, or offering more content)

There are now programmes that curate (strands of genres, shorter items, or archive)

There are also programmes excluded from radio – childrens and disability

As well as additional niche content

The BBC is, though, under pressure not to innovate in this space.

2 MINS

1 MIN

In thinking about how podcasts and radio are different it’s worth thinking about how this PANTONE OF PODCASTS could take shape

From very podcast to very radio – with 50 SHADES OF GREY IN THE MIDDLE

Audio quality is a factor (KILLA) but so is content (PORNO) Content can be more niche, more about interests and passions (LORE) or the form can be inventive (GRAMMAR) (DOG) Narrative journalism has become what podcasting is know for ( S TOWN)

POINT OUT EXAMPLES

PLAY:

S TOWN PORNO KILLA LORE GRAMMAR

(HISTORIES) (WTF)(HEART) (COW)

In thinking about how podcasts and radio are different it’s worth thinking about how this PANTONE OF PODCASTS could take shape

THIS IS A MORE COMPLEX MODEL PERHAPS

The reference points are quite arbitary, but here I’ve thought about how referring to radio, their independence (or amateur) status, their relationships to other media, and their corporate status.

Podcasts like Dirty John come from newspapers, whilst FOOC is firmly radio. Some like Strong and Stable are created for streaming platforms Or cross stand-up comedy, live shows, academia, and books. CROSS MEDIA PRACTICES – Producers coming from other disciplines like journalism, comedy, writing, performance, etc Some emerge from fan cultures – such as SOGGY BOTTOMS – Where fans might tolerate poor technical quality for content

Podcasts like The Heart emerged from a prosumer market but by joining one of the number of new networks, have crossed into a more corporate space.

5 MINS?

If a medium is: Technologies Cultures of practice Something that participants decide

Then podcasting is a medium – not just a means of distributing content made in other places

In their work Jeremy Wade Morris and Eleanor Patterson say:

“Podcasting is neither limited to nor defined by its technologies. Rather, it is a specific set of practices and cultural meanings that are entirely entwined with the technologies for its distribution , organisation, and consumption”

Radio is listened to live. Serendipity . You can’t listen to a podcast by accident. It’s a deliberate act.

Vincent Meserko asserts that podcasts allow hosts to present a more intimate version of themselves (TALKING ABOUT WTF) “Mainstream media, in Maron’s view, is incapable of the nuance and intimacy that the podcast provides. In short, the podcast feels more authentic.”

So, it might be down to participants (listeners and producers – is this Burgess/Green?) David Black on internet radio

TALK ABOUT THE QUOTE

3 MINS

Can podcasting be a medium then??

Talk about her definition sources – Academics / Popular Perception / Participants (that could also mean listeners I guess)

Her interviewees self defined

One said they knew a blog when they saw one It’s a blog, because a blogger made it

So are podcasts made by podcasters (and everything else is radio?)

Boyd says “while metaphors are a valuable linguistic tool for introducing new concepts, heavy reliance on them distorts the concept that is being introduced. Through metaphor, people cognitively attribute the properties of an old concept to the new one”

By calling it radio we then apply cultural meaning and industrial convention to the medium – when the medium itself has already exhibited an ability to be different.

3 MINS

A diverse mix of views

2 MINS MAX

This is the title of the paper….

This is an American in the development stages of a launching a podcast

The point he is making is that just because something sounds like radio – The stuff Kris Markman has described in her work (DJ Chatter etc) – does not mean it IS radio….

This is where boyd’s reference back to the participants is important

2 MINS

DAVE WINER

He invented the thing (kinda)

His idea was this was a space for AMATEURS

Talk about CHRIS LYDON and his role in podcasting (3 MINS)

Audioblogs Automated feeds – 2003 Berkman Center for the Internet at Harvard Law A rough and ready space for UN-MEDIATED CONTENT

PLAY 3 MINS

Is podcasting radio?

This is what some of the survey people said…..

2 MINS

Not a yes/no answer

Suggests a more cross media, muti modal approach where podcasts are media texts created as part of wider business or branding practices

2 MINS MAX

PODCASTING HAS GROWN UP More like a business – AN INDUSTRY

FROM CLUELESS AMATEURS TO RESEARCH INFORMED PROFESSIONALS WHO DO THIS FOR MONEY

2 MINS

Whether it’s a platform or a medium might depend on the content you look at….

Some of it was radio / some it is radio / some of it is made for the space

IF WE THINK ABOUT THIS AS A STARTING POINT…. Podcasting was conceived as a technology to deliver another form of media (AUDIOBLOGS)There are new industrial practices of networks – domestic production – conferences – formats – etcAudiences consume and relate in a different way (MORE OF AN INTIMATE SOUND)And there is an agreed cultural understanding of what podcasts are – as opposed to radio

4 MINS

Pedersen and Have (2012) audiobook is ‘a new medium experience that calls for a new theoretical framework’ (93

SUMMARISE

Podcasts are mainstream. So is the word. It has cultural capital (and understanding). So, does this mean we can drop the radio tag? Or not?

Lore has been picked by Amazon

Spotify and Audible are commissioning shows called podcasts, that aren’t podcasts

And everyone has a podcast

IF TIME

Podcast Studies

1.
‘Just because you
play a guitar and are
from Nashville
doesn’t mean you are
a country singer’ The
case for Podcast
Studies.
CRMCS Seminar, October 23rd 2017
Richard Berry
@richardberryuk

2.
Framework
• Small online survey of
podcasters
• Cross reference to work on
YouTube and Blogging
• Defining the podcast as a
medium and a field of study

3.
Hey, but aren’t
podcasts just
another type of
radio?
Loading Paper….

5.
• Podcasting as “an alternative
delivery mechanism wherein the
CBC’s podcasts largely serve as
promotional paratexts for this
source radio programs, the radio
service, and the broader CBC
brand” Where “for many major
media institutions and their
users, the format continues to be
more about extension than
disruption”
• (Christopher Cwynar, 2015)
“Like VCR for
the radio”

6.
“…Radio can be said to have
certain characteristics, but the
evidence suggests that radio is
what history says it is: it has no
essence since it has already
taken, and continues to take,
different forms. Radio is what it
is at a given time, in a given
context of use and
meaningfulness..”
(Jo Tacchi, 2000

7.
The case for radio
• Historical line from the
Hindenburg to Serial
• Radio can be divorced from
technologies (Convergence)
• Do labels matter anyway?
• Radio subjugates the podcast
space as another distribution
platform

11.
The case for the defence
• Podcasting is more than just a platform
• It demonstrates ‘mediumness’
• If we discount technology then we judge by form and how
participants define the practice
• “podcasting doesn’t have to be different but I think makers do
feel a little more liberty with the form, thinking of themselves
as podcaster versus radio producers” (Julie Shapiro (PRX)
quoted in McHugh, 2016)

12.
‘The medium is defined by the practice it
supports and the ways in which one identifies
with that practice…The boundaries of blogs are
socially constructed, not technologically
defined. Yet, the technology plays a heavy role
in shaping the resulting forms’
(danah boyd: 2006)

13.
‘Podcasting to me is very
different to radio. Simply
because you use your
voice, the creation and
distribution process and
business can be very
different. Just because
you play a guitar and are
from Nashville doesn’t
mean you are a country
singer. Similarly,
podcasting and radio can
be very different’

14.
• ‘I felt a podcast was like a blog, it was
something that amateurs would do
NOT professionals …. that was the
real breakthrough that it would open
up media to all kinds of people whom
it wasn’t open to before…. The point
was I could do it, that was the point’
• (Dave Winer, 2015)

15.
We basically just talk. If
people want to listen,
cool. Radio is more
performed.
since we have a cultural
understanding of what is "radio", it
makes things easier for those who are
trying to understand what we do…
Freedom: content, duration, sponsors -
these are not afforded to Terrestrial radio
At the medium level it's quite different: time
shifting, feed subscriptions, audience sharing. At
the media level, radio is controlled and different
expectations from stations, audiences and
advertisers.

16.
“What is happening to
podcasting, 11 years after
its invention, is its
transformation from a do-
it-yourself, amateur niche
medium to a commercial
mass medium: from
narrowcasting to
broadcasting.”
(Tiziano Bonini, 2015)